Published at 12th of September 2019 9:16 am

Chapter 43 – Deadly Bolt

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Facing the ogre in front of us with it’s menacing roar, I stood in front of Selene-san as if to protect her.

There weren’t many options for a party of two.

Taking into account Selene-san’s job, I didn’t hesitate to go to the front.

「Selene-san! I’ll act as a…pseudo-vanguard, so I’ll leave my back to you. His weak point is his head!」 (Hind)

「Eh, is it going to be fine? Isn’t your job Shinto priest?」 (Selene)

「Leave it to me. Even though I’m a rearguard, I’m over level 30. I’ll show you that I can endure his strikes!」 (Hind)

I plunged into the gigantic ogre that was three times my height.

…Uwah, even though it’s the first boss, he’s quite scary when you get close.

Even in VR you can feel its intimidation aura and killing intent, so my legs were unconsciously trembling in fear.

Since Tobi and Yumir face this kind of thing, it made me realize just how much courage the people that act as vanguards have.

If I stayed as a rearguard, I’d have never known how it felt.

「Come, ogre! Throw away that club and come at me!」 (Hind)

「Gaaah!!」

「Uwah!」 (Hind)

Well, there was no way he would throw it away, right!? There’s no way a barbarous ogre would understand what a person is saying.

I somehow dodged the strike and at the same time I did, I cast 「Guard up」 on myself.

Once I cast it, in front of me the next attack was coming and I barely…alright, I made it!

「That was close!」 (Hind)

I dodged his successive strikes.

I don’t know when I’ll eat a hit, but this should probably make it so I can endure a couple strikes.

This time I cast the support spell 「Attack up」 on Selene-san, who was loading a bolt.

「Thanks, Hind-kun!」 (Selene)

In doing so, even though it was just for a split second, it probably had been a bad idea to show my back to the ogre.

Sharp pain ran through my back, when I realized, I saw how my HP had decreased by 1/3.

I think it’s far better than being blown away but…

「-Tsk! That hurts you bastard!」 (Hind)

I stabbed him continuously with my staff in an act of anger.

「Daaaaaaaaaaah!!」 (Hind)

28, 33, 27, 29, 31, 30.

I thrust at the ogre six consecutive times, but each successful hit only dealt a sad amount of about 30 damage.

The damage I dealt didn’t even amount to 180 and the Ogre’s HP is roughly 3000.

Yup, it’s impossible. Are they telling me to hit it over a 100 times?

Developers, please give Shinto priest more damage.

「Guaaa!!」

「Adah!」 (Hind)

No good, my HP!

My HP went under 50% and I started to cast 「Healing」 in a panic.

The advantages of lower tier spells is that their cast time is short so I immediately recovered around 20% of my HP.

However, since I did it in a panic I misjudged the timing of the ogre’s attack and was too late to react to his movements.

His club appeared in front of my eyes and the moment it looked like I was going to hit by the second strike-

「Goh…Gah…!?」

「!」 (Hind)

A thick crossbow bolt…had pierced the Ogre’s chest very deeply.

The hit staggered the ogre and I successfully avoided the strike by a hair’s breadth.

The damage displayed was 708, it was extraordinary when there was no skill used.

「Sorry, I missed! I’ll finish him off with the next one, so endure for 10 seconds!」 (Selene)

「Understood!」 (Hind)

Selene-san started loading the next bolt.

Thinking about it, it’s a one of a kind weapon made by a top class blacksmith, there’s no way it would be weak.

Since the 「I missed」 she just said right now probably meant 「I failed to hit its weak point」, I knew they were reassuring words coming from an archer.

The ogre tried to attack Selene-san because she dealt a big amount of damage to him so I blocked his path and tried to get aggro from him.

I cast 「Attack up」 on myself and attacked the ogre with basic attacks and 「Shining」…alright, I was able to somehow make it look this way.

The ogre started attacking me again.

A second strike, a third one and when the fourth one managed to graze my arm, dry wind blew violently on my back.

When I sensed that a skill was being used, I guarded against the ogre’s fifth attack on purpose to stop him.

The impact was transmitted to both of my arms that were holding the staff and my HP was shaved.

I don’t have much HP left…but I should have stopped his movements with this! Shoot!

「-Tsk!」 (Selene)

Selene-san clenched her teeth and activated 「Blast arrow」.

With striking speed, the bolt cut through the air and it hit the ogre straight in the cranium.

…The damage displayed was 3834.

It was completely overkill.

His head was splendidly blown away and I could see a bit of a bright re-…wait, that’s gross!

I didn’t want to see more so I turned my eyes away from there.

While spraying blood, the gigantic body fell over after having lost its strength.

…However, it was in my direction.

「Wa-Wait, you got to be kidding me!」 (Hind)

When I realized, the ogre’s body weight was already leaning on me and I was unable to push it away with my staff.

This only happened because I was absent mindedly looking at where the bolt went.

I hurriedly let go of my staff and jumped towards the ogre’s legs while holding my head.

With my HP, if I get crushed by it I’ll definitely die!

I don’t want to die and resurrect in that way!

…As if my prayers were heard, the ogre’s body scattered before reaching the ground.

It turned into particles of light and I was able to narrowly escape death…

As a result, I ended up in a very uncool posture, so I hurriedly picked up my staff and stood up.

Then I returned to where Selene-san was acting as if nothing had happened-

「Good work, Hind-kun. Eh…I can’t say that it was very cool but-」 (Selene)

「I know, I already know…please don’t say anything…」 (Hind)

I wished she didn’t touch on that topic…it was quite the disgraceful sight.

Thanks to this experience, I know very well that I lack the ability to keep calm when going to the front.

Basically, I get too flustered. I don’t have enough guts or courage.

I knew that already, but it seems like I lack the aptitude to be a vanguard.

「H-However, when you stopped that attack, your fighting spirit was transmitted to me. Shoot now! Kinda like that.

「I put more energy into it unconsciously.」 (Selene)

「Thanks for that…」 (Hind)

Without any doubt, those words referred to that splendid attack.

…*Pyron*.

I thought Selene-san was a companion with bad motor skills like me, but she’s unexpectedly high spec…

…*Pyron*.

No, now that I think about it, her running and walking speed is not that fast so I guess it’s just limited to shooting.

…*Pyron*.

After surpassing the handicap that is hyperopia, it seems like she has extraordinarily good eyes after all.

…*Pyron*.

…

…*Pyron*.

「Daah! So noisy!」 (Hind)

「!? Why are you saying that so suddenly!?」 (Selene)

「Ah, I’m sorry. The mails just didn’t stop coming.」 (Hind)

The ringtone of the mails can only be heard by the recipient after all.

After telling Selene-san I checked who the sender was, all five of them were from Yumir.

I didn’t take a look at the contents and just closed the menu while sighing.

「…Are you sure?」 (Selene)

「With this pattern, she’s probably urging me to come back already. Since we are about to get there, let’s ignore them and go.」 (Hind)

「O-Ok. What do I do, I’m getting nervous…」 (Selene)

「Now now. You’ll do just fine.」 (Hind)

After coming out of the Homa plains, Heathrow town was in front of our eyes.

Yumir and the others were gathered in a spacious space in front of the fountain and their presence was so strong you could immediately see them from far away.

The grade of their looks were high after all…the players surrounding them were passing by shyly and there were many that were taking glances at them.

Since Tobi stopped wearing his veil outside combat, that place was now full of beauties.

If I didn’t know them, I would probably…feel awkward getting close to such a group.

While thinking such useless things, I kept walking with Selene-san and Yumir raised her hand when she noticed me.

「Oh, Hind. You are finally here! I was getting tired of waiting!」 (Yumir)

「Yup, I just came back. Were you able to buy what I asked for?」 (Hind)

「There were no issues buying food and healing items. We are ready to depart at any time.」 (Riizu)

「Just as Hind-dono instructed, we bought more than enough so there would be some surplus. I’ll proceed to hand over your part of-」 (Tobi)

「Ah, wait a moment. Before that…eh, hmm?」 (Hind)

Just when I thought about introducing Selene-san, I couldn’t see the girl that was supposed to be behind me.

When I moved my line of sight to look for her…ah, there she is!

She was hiding behind that tree…when I took her hand and tried to bring her along, she started shaking her head.

Like a whismur she tried to tell me something in a small voice.

「Eh, what did you just say?…It’s embarrassing? You might not be able to speak properly?…I understand.

「In that case, I’ll talk in your place, so don’t worry about it-…Eh? It’s fine.」 (Hind)

I didn’t think she would be this bad with strangers.

I wasn’t considerate enough…

Besides, I guess their looks are no good either.

They pointlessly shine after all.

She did say that she gets even more nervous when she talks with someone beautiful, so if I took that into consideration I could have seen this coming.

「Nu? Who is that, Hind? That girl.」 (Yumir)

「…That doesn’t matter, it’s not about who she is. More importantly, why are you sticking to Hind-san’s back? Depending on what you say I might not be able to forgive you…」 (Riizu)

「!?」 (Selene)

「Ri-Riizu-dono, calm down. Hind-dono, who is this…?」 (Tobi)

Because of Riizu’s threat, it seems like the teary eyed Selene-san wanted to say something to her so I brought my ear closer to her mouth.

Hmm, I see…well, I guess there’s no choice but to have her get used to it over time…they are not bad people after all.

First of all, I have to introduce Selene-san to these three.

「This person is Selene-san. My blacksmithing teacher, she’s also the benefactor that made the meteo greatsword we used in the event with me.

「You should be grateful, especially you Yumir.」 (Hind)

「Oh, is that so! We already sold that sword, but it had incredible power! Furthermore, the fact that I got the aura was also thanks to you then.

「Thank you! …and, even though I already knew your name, today is the first time we met right? Pleased to meet you!」 (Yumir)

Yumir wanted a handshake while giving a radiant smile.

Selene-san timidly took out her hand from behind me and while she was nervous, she managed to shake her hand.

At times like this, I’m thankful for Yumir’s ability to read the atmosphere and her pushiness and honest attitude.

It might be because that action had dispeled a bit of her nervousness, Selene-san whispered in my ear again.

「Ah…yes.

「Selene-san is saying this. I’m extremely shy in front of strangers so I apologize if I do anything rude.

「My player name is Selene. Pleased to meet you…or so she says.」 (Hind)

「Well, you sure brought someone odd with you again…ah, I apologize. My name is Tobi.」 (Tobi)

「I’m Riizu. However Hind-san, why did you bring her here with this timing? I mean, you could have brought her once we had made the guild home and settled down…」 (Riizu)

「Well, I wasn’t really introducing her as just a blacksmith…」 (Hind)

I paused there for just a second.

With the exception of Riizu who seemed to be quite sullen, Yumir and Tobi accepted Selene-san.

I think it’ll be fine if I say it like this…probably.

「…The truth is, I was thinking about having Selene-san set up the guild with us.」 (Hind)

「Eh…? What do you mean by that Hind-san?」 (Riizu)

「It means just that.

「I’ll have her join our party like this, and we’ll aim for the desert as five.

「I already got her approval, the rest will depend on you. So, what do you think?」 (Hind)

When they heard my words, Yumir, Riizu and Tobi’s faces stiffened.

What kind of faces are you guys even making?

「「「Eh!?」」」

Was it that surprising!?

Due to the three of them raising their voices, Selene-san, who was behind me, started trembling.

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